Walking in Little India in Singapore

Posted on November 30, 2009 - Filed Under Travel

Cities are often best seen on foot, and Singapore has a number of sights to see if you decide to strike out as a pedestrian. Walking along Serangoon Road, off Sungei Road, you will find the beginning of India’s influence in Singapore, starting with a number of souvenir and sari shops. This is the Little India Arcade, a good place to locate tiny trinkets, traditional Indian clothing and CDs. Cross Serangoon Road and you’ll see, a short distance away, the Buffalo Road. If you’ve begun your walk hungry, you’ll find some excellent Indian curry and vegetarian food stalls at the Zhu Jiao Centre. This area was once used as a slaughterhouse and a buffalo holding pen. A little farther up, you’ll find a small road named Chander Road, leading off to the right, where you’ll see 37 Kerbau Road. This is a house out of history, from 1900, and an example of how the wealthy Chinese lived at the turn of that century.

Across the street, you’ll see the first of three temples on this walk. It’s the Shree Lakshminarayan Temple. It’s a Hindu temple and it’s for the incarnation of the goddess Kali, Lakshmi. You’ll know it immediately by its bright red domes. If you walk farther along, and are hungry again, you’ll find more stalls and restaurants up Chander and to the right on Bililios Road. The vendors here will give you strong curries and dahl, served on banana leaves.

At the end of this street and at the corner of Serangoon, you’ll see the gates of the 1880s Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, also dedicated to Kali. Inside the worship hall, you’ll find sculptures and paintings that represent Hindu gods and goddesses that number in the thousands.

At the intersection of Serangoon and Belilios, walk eight blocks farther and discover the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple. This is the spot on which Hindus begin their own walk, the Thaipusam procession, often held in late January, to a temple on Tank Road, two miles distant. The festival is meant for two things: to say thanks for good fortune throughout the year, and/or to pay a penance for any sins made in that same year. The Thaipusam procession is something to see, if not a bit alarming: Devotees build heavy frames of steel, covered with flowers and feathers, and then anchored into skin with spears and hooks.

At the end of this walking tour, no doubt you’ll be full and ready for a nap back at one of the Singapore four star hotels, a great place to contemplate what you’ve seen or simply to relax.

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